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AAI in the News

Arab Americans May Switch Sides This Year

By David Harrison
Connection Newspapers
Posted on Thursday September 30, 2004

Bush voters in 2000 could go for Kerry this time around.

In 2000, Ibrahim and Aida Mady voted for George W. Bush. This year, they are doing everything they can to see that he does not win a second term.

They’re not alone. Although many Arab-Americans voted for the Republicans four years ago, some are reconsidering their position and switching sides, say members of Northern Virginia’s Arab-American and Muslim-American community. Two wars in predominantly Muslim countries and the implementation of the Patriot Act have soured them against the president.

“He failed us. He did not deliver. He lied,” said Ibrahim Mady, who lives with his wife Aida in Alexandria.
Up until now, Ibrahim Mady has been a steadfast Republican. But both he and his wife plan to vote for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry (D) for president and for U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8) for Congress.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” said Ibrahim Mady. “I cannot trust [Bush] anymore.”

“I thought he would be acting like his father,” he added, referring to former president George H. Bush, father of the current president. “I respected his father so much.”
For the first time since moving to the United States from Egypt 24 years ago, the Madys said they feel threatened when traveling abroad with their American passports.

“We are in the defensive position all the time,” said Aida Mady. “I hide my passport, even in France. We never thought we’d have that feeling.”

Still, both said they were “proud” of the United States even if it means they have to spend hours defending their adopted country to their relatives in Egypt.

Politicians, particularly those from Northern Virginia, who ignore the voting trends of Arab Americans do so at their own risk. The Census Bureau counted 46,151 Americans of Arab ancestry living in Virginia in 2000, almost twice as many as in 1990, but some estimates place the real number of Arab-Americans in Virginia at three times that figure. According to the Arab-American Institute, a Washington-based national Arab-American group, there are about 135,000 Arab-Americans in Virginia, almost half of whom live in Fairfax County.

The Arab-American community is also becoming increasingly organized politically. Last Sunday, the Arab-American Institute hosted a candidates’ forum in Tysons Corner and invited representatives from the presidential campaigns and candidates for the area’s congressional delegation.

Nadia Itraish, a Palestinian-American living in McLean who attended the forum said she does not know of any Arab-Americans who are voting Republican this year. That’s a change from the last election when many of her acquaintances, including her uncles, voted for Bush.
Four years ago, about 45.5 percent of Arab-Americans nationwide voted for Bush, whereas 38 percent went with then-Vice President Al Gore and 13.5 percent cast their ballots for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, whose family originally came from Lebanon, said James Zogby, president of the institute.

This year, those figures are reversed, he said, with 49 percent supporting Kerry and 31 percent backing Bush.
The real swing voters among the group are immigrants, who make up about 25 percent of the Arab-American community, he added. In 2000, about 70 percent of immigrants were swayed by Bush’s call to end profiling and do away with secret evidence rules. Now that same percentage is backing Kerry.

“I see this in almost every ethnic community,” he said. “The naturalized citizen has obviously less attachment to party ID whereas those who grew up in the culture of a party tend to be more stable voters.”

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Arab-Americans have felt increasingly isolated and threatened by the policies of the Bush administration, said Abrar Ansari, of McLean. In particular, he pointed to the 2001 Patriot Act, which many Arab Americans feel has unfairly singled them out for scrutiny. Despite the Patriot Act, however, Ansari said he believes Arab-Americans were still a diverse voting group.

“Just like every other community, you have people with different perspectives in life,” he said.

Randa Fahmy Hudome, who spoke on behalf of the Bush campaign at Sunday’s event, recognized that Arab-Americans may disagree with some of the president’s agenda but urged the audience to focus on what the president has done for Arab-Americans.

“I know this is a difficult time for our community,” she said, but added that Bush has appointed more Arab-Americans to positions of prominence in his administration than any other president.

“On foreign policy, we have the success in Afghanistan,” she said to groans and scattered boos from the audience. “Can you argue people are safer … in Afghanistan?”

“I tell people all across the country, vote this year like your lives depended on it because they really do,” Zogby told the audience.

Moran, who received a standing ovation after being introduced, said one out of six Arab Americans voted in this summer’s primary election in which he beat Andy Rosenberg for the Democratic Party’s nomination. By contrast, only one out of eight Democrats cast a ballot in that election, he said.

“I appreciate all the support I have gotten from this community,” he said. “I intend to do everything I can to work hard to earn not only your trust but to earn the trust of all the residents of the eighth district of Virginia.”

Other Democratic candidates appealed to the Arab-American community by criticizing the Patriot Act, which many Arab- and Muslim-Americans say has led to harassment and discrimination at the hands of federal authorities.

“There are parts of it which are an insult to our Constitution,” said Ken Longmyer, who is running in the 11th district against incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Davis®.
James Socas, the candidate in the 10th district said the act “goes against everything that the patriots in this country stood for and died for.”

Davis, the only Republican elected official to speak at the forum, praised the Arab-American community for helping the United States remain a “pioneer nation.”

Immigrants from the Middle East, he said, are “not looking for a handout but looking for the freedom and opportunity that America offers.”

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10) and 8th district Republican challenger Lisa Marie Cheney did not attend the event.